DEA may settle botched detention matter

News conference has been called after attorney talks on $20 million claim

The attorney for Daniel Chong, the UC San Diego engineering student who said he was left in a holding cell by federal agents for five days last year without food or water, has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday.

Lawyer Eugene Iredale declined to discuss any developments in the case ahead of the morning event, but said the announcement involves Chong.

Chong, now 25, was among seven suspects who were detained following the execution of a search warrant by U.S. drug agents at a University City home in April 2012.

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The UCSD student said he was interviewed and told he would be released without charges, but agents forgot about him and he spent five days in a holding cell without food or water.

“I had to recycle my own urine,” Chong said at a news conference in early May 2012, after he was discovered and rushed to a hospital. “I had to do what I had to do to survive.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of issuing a public apology to Chong, who nonetheless filed a $20 million claim against the U.S. government.

Iredale has declined to discuss the status of Chong’s claim over the past 15 months, though he acknowledged that settlement discussions were under way when asked why no lawsuit was filed.

A federal narcotics task force recovered 18,000 ecstasy pills, marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and several weapons during the raid at which Chong was detained on the morning of April 21, 2012.

Chong, who has since recovered and returned to UCSD, said last year that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, though he admitted going to the residence to take illegal drugs with friends.

The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Justice was reviewing the case last year, but a spokesman said Monday that he had no information to release about the case. A DEA spokeswoman said she had no comment.